Following the passage of the bill seeking to stop anyone above sixty years from vying for election to the offices of the President and Governor in the nation for the second reading, a Niger Delta Youth leader, Mr. Saviour Imaebe, has commended the move by the House of Representatives to create more opportunities for youth participation in politics.
The National President of South South Youth Initiation, Comrade Saviour Imaebe, who said this in an interview with journalists in Port Harcourt, cited the first Governor of Rivers State, Chief Diette Spiff, who performed well as a youth.
Mr Imaebe, however, pointed out that age is not a factor to guarantee good governance but a wholesome electoral process; without it, the objectives of democracy would not be attained.
“Age is immaterial now, what matters is our electoral process. How is our electoral process? Is it in the standard pace, is it in the international best standard, or just based on individual interest? Our problem is standard, our problem is our policies. Our problem is the electoral process; if the process can be given a genuine transparency and the Independent National Electoral Commission lives up to expectation, it will be the best of its kind,” he explained.
Mr Imaebe lamented that the opinion of the people no longer counts in the process of selecting leaders in the country, describing it as a means of truncating the people’s mandate.
He expressed pessimism that even if the bill scales through, the efforts of the common man who is not rich, influential, and has no Godfathers would amount to nothing.
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“Those Nigerians who came from a very rich background are the ones to succeed. Those Nigerians whose fathers have been heads of state, presidents, governors, and former ministers would be the successful ones. Those from poor families cannot succeed because of how much they have to support themselves to win political positions in the country,” he stated.
Mr Imaebe said the country can still boast of credible youths who are ready for the responsibility of leading the nation to a greater height, but are limited by the poor standard of the selection process.
“While some of our youths are negative about it because of failed leadership, and a lot of youths are discouraged because of our policies and standards,” he noted.
The youth leader called for a holistic reform in the democratic institutions, which include the judiciary, the Electoral Commission, and agencies, to make them independent, for fairness to reign.
